Lessons from the early morning quiet.

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beauty

I feel differently when I am outside. I think differently. I see differently. I hear differently. I smell things differently. I feel the air around me differently.

I change. I slow down. Calm down. I shed wants and unknown fears.

Nature heals.

Our part of NYS was in a pretty bad drought last year. There was briefly talk of having to truck water in to our community.

About 20 minutes from my home is a narrow, 215 foot waterfall. Not tall by some standards, but still beautiful. During the drought, the water stopped. The waterfall had become just a cliff. The thundering water was silenced. The mist vanished.

This spring we have had rain. And rain. We are now in a flood warning. Our lake is high, yards and homes are flooded.

Easter morning we walked the gentle trail to our waterfall, Taughannock Falls. The water was flowing.

Taughannock, photo by me 4/16/17

The mist purified and baptized me in a way no organized dogma could. The thunder of the raging water muffled noises in my head of worry, fear, doubt. I could smell the scent of the earth, damp, decaying and, also, alive. I focused on the force and power of the milky water launching off the side of rock cliff that was too old to comprehend. Somewhere in those rocks and cliffs are fossils of life from ancient sea beds.

The Waterfall at Lu-Shan

Sunlight streams on river stones.From high above, the river steadily plunges–

three thousand feet of sparkling water–the milky way pouring down from heaven.

Li Po

Surely our little waterfall is a tiny bit of the milky way pouring down from heaven. Heaven reaching down towards Earth. A reminder of things inter-connected. A reminder to seek beauty and tread lightly. A reminder to look up in wonder and awe at the stars in the universe. A reminder to look all around this biosphere called Earth with humility and and respect, gentleness and stewardship. A reminder to live in moderation and care, balance and understanding. A reminder to pause in gratitude and appreciation for our Mother Earth and all the life she supports.

**It’s spring!! That means Earth Day, marches and standing up to protect the only home we have: Earth. Here are some readings to ponder This Week

My hope for the new year is that it be filled with healing. That we have the courage and commitment to every each and every one of us on this earth to look around and see we have to do things differently. For each other. We must do something. I know there is much that is good and beautiful in the world. I see both every day. I feel, see, hear the goodness, the kindness, the beauty. Hopefully I also help to contribute the existence of both. And yet….

I watched some old movies over vacation. From the 40’s and 50’s. I feel, in many ways, we are in the same place with some things. I’m talking about the things that haven’t improved, changed. I’m talking about the same social prejudices and oppression. The same racial profiling. The same stereotyping. We still try to fix things through violence and killing, bullying and punishing. We still live in fear. We still discriminate because of many things. It appears we haven’t gotten very far.

I find the different responses to this blog interesting. There is the group who says, “Wow, so serious. Lighten up. It’s all good. Just let it go.” Another suggests I not be political. There is a smaller group that keeps saying “I am so sorry you are hurting so much.” The largest group says, “Thank you for inspiring me and making me think. Thank you for challenging me.” And, there it is….I hear people don’t want to talk politics, or to be serious. I hear lighten up, EVERYTHING is good…just let go, don’t worry. I hear that “hurting” is sad. I hear I may inspire others.

I will be political because that is what governs us as a whole. So many of us are left behind. Invisible. Ignored. I am serious and I will not lighten up or let go of feeling empathy and compassion for those suffering, in pain and being oppressed and held down. I do hurt and I think that is a good thing, not something I or others should feel sad about. I care. I hope I do inspire people…even a little bit. Someone said something very powerful to me a little ways back, they said “You make me think about things differently.” That’s all I want to do. You don’t have to agree with me. Just think. Learn something new that doesn’t play into your confirmation biases. I work hard every day to try to check in on these for myself…it is very difficult, but so important.

Now here we are at the dawn of a new year. We’ll celebrate in infinite amounts of ways from drunken stupors to running for life as homes are being bombed. Some will watch a loved one die tonight, while somewhere else a new life will burst forth and cry the air into his or her lungs. Many of us will pause and be grateful. Thankful. Many of us will cry out.

Some of us will light bon fires and throw pieces of the past year into the flames to symbolically release them from our lives for ever. Some will sing and dance and honor Nature. Some of us will make a list including the promise to loose weight, eat better, give up something, make time for ourselves, travel, do something new.

Me? I am going to use this poem to guide me through the new year.

Kiss the Earth

Walk and touch peace every moment.Walk and touch happiness every moment.Each step brings a fresh breeze.Each step makes a flower bloom.Kiss the Earth with your feet.Bring the Earth your love and happiness.The Earth will be safewhen we feel safe in ourselves.

~by Thich Nhat Hanh

My resolution is to use this poem to ground me daily. With every step, to kiss the Earth.

For my action, I will use Thay’s poem as my centering prayer, my chant, as I go through my day. To be mindful of each step. As it kisses the Earth. To walk with awareness and find and touch peace. To walk with awareness and touch happiness. To bring the Earth my love and happiness combined with concern and care. To work towards all of feeling safe in and with ourselves so the Earth will be safe too.

I am also choosing one word to be my lamp lighting the way through the year. I will carry it with me throughout the day, as a reminder of my intentions.

My word is “open”. My intention is to be open. Open to Empathy. To Compassion. To Truth. To Hope. To the stories of all. To not shut myself off to the suffering and sorrow in the world. To be open. To not turn away. To bear witness.

I’d really like to hear from you. Tell me your hopes for the new year.

Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light.It was what I was born for – to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world – to instruct myself over and over in joy, and acclamation. Nor am I talking about the exceptional, the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant – but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab,the daily presentations. Oh, good scholar, I say to myself, how can you help but grow wise with such teachings as these – the untrimmable light of the world, the ocean’s shine, the prayers that are made out of grass?

I don’t know about you, but everyday I have to work at remembering to look and listen for the things“that more or less kills me with delight”.

There is so much that distracts me or draws my attention away from being able to see the

” ordinary, the common, the very drab, the daily presentations.”

So much that is beautiful, wonderful, miraculous is in front of us every day.

If only we would look and listen. We would see and hear.

Gratefully I work with young children who challenge me every single day to look differently, in order to see differently, in order to think differently, in order to understand differently. And in doing so, I am able to witness the common magic of each day.

“It was what I was born for –to look, to listen, to lose myselfinside this soft world –to instruct myselfover and overin joy, and acclamation.”

If we could only remember…this is what we were born for……

What is good, beautiful and true demands we keep our hearts open, our eyes alert, our minds uncluttered. In doing so it becomes possible to turn away and refuse what is wrong and instead work for what is right. To embrace the potential and possibility of goodness, kindness, helpfulness, understanding, compassion….

Instructing ourselves in “joy and acclamation” for all that is part of the untrimmable light of the world.

Do not drown in fear, despair, hate or worry. Look up and around. Most certainly there is darkness and death and violence, war and intolerance. But there too is light, life, love, understanding and acceptance. Rise up allow yourself to grow wise with the delight of the world so that joy and love will win over all else and spread across our world. So that we will learn how to adapt to a world of peace, of having enough for all, kindness, hope, respect….and we will learn how to rise together and always welcome and honor one another.

A four-year old stood in the middle of our circle at group time and announced, unsolicited, that it was time to make a “declaration”. I asked what she meant and she said “We have to pray for peace. We have to hold hands and say ‘I declare peace.’ “

If you have ever read anything by John Muir, it is difficult to imagine what the world would be like had he not come along and fallen in love with Nature and the Earth. Through his legacy we have come to value, honor and respect the miracle of Nature. We cannot fail to delight in the beauty the Earth offers us at every turn. We cannot shirk the responsibility to tend and care for her, always remembering we are the ones who have the power to possibly destroy her.

Picture Rock Lakeshore National Park by Kathryn Howlett

I am an IMAX junkie! I love the big screen. I mean the REALLY big screen. Yesterday we saw a beautiful movie on the National Parks of the U.S. Some beauty was so stunning it made me catch my breath. There were moments that brought a tear to my eye and caused me to whisper “wow”.

Afterwards my husband, son and I agreed there is so much Natural, physical, planetary beauty here in this country one could spend years exploring, enjoying and communing with it. I was a little taken aback when the woman holding the door open for us laughed and commented, “That’s not for me!” I hoped she was talking about the ice climbing, rock climbing, biking…..but found it sad to think perhaps that also meant she might never go to one of these places just to experience the beauty. We don’t have to “do” anything. Just open your eyes to the beauty of Nature.

I find such sorrow in all the hurt mankind has inflicted on Earth. And I find hope in knowing the Earth has great healing power to mend the wounds we have inflicted upon her…if we give her the chance.

“If you know wilderness in the way that you know love, you would be unwilling to let it go. … This is the story of our past and it will be the story of our future.”
Terry Tempest Williams

Redwood National Park by Kathryn Howlett

John Muir was a man who was at home in the wilderness and saw and understood the power, beauty and fragility of our Earth. Thanks in part to his efforts and to Teddy Roosevelt who found great personal healing in the wilderness, we have these tremendous National Parks.

“Wilderness is a necessity…They will see what I meant in time. There must be places for human beings to satisfy their souls. Food and drink is not all. There is the spiritual. In some it is only a germ, of course, but the germ will grow.”

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to the body and soul.”

“How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious,
starry firmament for a roof.
In such places, standing alone on the mountain top,
it is easy to realize whatever special nests we make-leaves and moss
like the marmots and the birds,
or tents or piled stone-we all dwell in a house of one room-
the world with the firmament for its roof-
and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving track.”

“The mountains are fountains of men as well as of rivers, of glaciers, of fertile soil. The great poets, philosophers, prophets, able men whose thoughts and deeds have moved the world, have come down from the mountains- mountain-dwellers who have grown strong there with the forests trees in Nature’s workshops.”

~~Above quotes by John Muir

Crater Lake National Park by Kathryn Howlett

I love the part about all of us sharing the same night sky. We are all, together, under the same sky. This is a previous post: Nestled Under A Blanket of Stars There is so much we can learn from Nature. There so much healing we can receive from Nature. All we have to do is go outside, see the beauty. Find the stillness. Close your eyes. Listen. Feel. Breathe. This is where we gain understanding. This is where healing happens. This is where love and life are honored.

This is where we see, understand and accept that “we all dwell in a house of one room.”